July 19th: Kunming
We awoke early for the 6hr bus ride to Kunming, passing through more beautiful countryside as we said goodbye to rural China. We emerged through a long tunnel into the noticeable smog of the actively growing Kunming city and said farewell to our bus at the Cha Ma Shi tea house where the tour began. Dinner was a special event as Austin and I celebrated our birthdays with a bijou toasts, a special noodle soup and a huge birthday cake which turned out to be light and delicious.
After dinner we purchased some tea and teaware from the Cha Ma Shi shop and were presented with two Seven Cups puer tea cakes. Only 1,000 of these cakes were produced and they are the first ever (that we know of) produced by an American company.
We then drove to a friend of Mr. Hu’s house to peruse a nice selection of Jade and enjoy some puer tea. Christine, Xiao Zhu and I then walked the active streets of Kunming looking for slippers (no luck) before retiring back to our hotel a bit after midnight.
